Things That Could Have Been
by AddictionHigh
Summary: Mark Sloane's been on life support for a month and eventually it's turned off and he dies. His best friends Derek Sheppard and Callie Torres are with him the whole way and go out for a couple of drink after their shift to celebrate their friend's life. Inspired by the song "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill.


**I'll be honest, I was kind of looking for depressing song lyrics to work on another fic idea I already have – but I put on "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill and this came out as a result. Enjoy! (Spoilers for season 9 if you haven't already seen it.)**

Callie Torres and Derek Sheppard were the only two people sat in Mark Sloane's private room at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital as his ventilator was removed and he was left to slowly die in peace without medicine keeping him alive. The rest of Mark's friends and colleagues; Jackson Avery, Miranda Bailey, Richard Webber, Owen Hunt and Alex Karev were sat outside in the corridor, watching silently as his heart rate slowly deteriorated until he died. Meredith Grey, much to her sadness, was stuck in a surgery and Christina was also stuck in a surgery – across the country in Minnesota.

Back inside the room, neither Derek nor Callie even bothered to try and hide their tears as Mark flat lined. What was the point when everybody knew how upset they were? Derek and Mark had grown up together and Callie and Mark had a child together. With tears streaming down her face, after a few minutes, Callie looked over the bed towards Derek and asked him if he'd like to go for a few drinks that night in memory of their friend. Most of Mark's friends had decided that they were going to go for drinks that Friday night to honour their friend, but Callie wanted to celebrate his life that night with just Derek. He agreed.

Later that evening, once both Derek and Callie had finished their shifts, they left the hospital together and headed across the road to Joe's bar where they fully intended on getting very drunk and remembering their friend. It's what he would have wanted – okay, he would have also wanted them both to check out and sleep with as many women as possible, but they were both married and very, very happy so that wasn't going to be happening. Ordering a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of wine, they headed to a booth near the door and poured themselves a generous glass.

"To Mark!" They raised their glasses to the air, tears clouding their vision before taking a sip of their drinks. The bar was fairly busy so they didn't expect the room to go silent at their toast, but suddenly a chorus of "to Mark" swept around the room: he was a well-known fixture at the bar with a name for being a womaniser. People who didn't really know Mark anywhere near as well as anyone at the hospital were raising their glasses. People who only knew that Mark was a surgeon weren't letting his name be forgotten. It pushed Callie over the edge and she burst into tears, putting her wine down and running to the ladies room for a moment to regain her composure. A few minutes later, Callie returned from the bathroom having redone her makeup and sat back down opposite Derek, smiling slightly to herself.

"To think I might not even be with Arizona if it wasn't for Mark" she chuckled, more to herself than Derek. "If he hadn't pushed me to have sex with Erica Hahn, I'd have never known I'd like women. I'd probably still be having casual sex with him."

Derek smiled softly at her quiet tone, knowing she was talking more to herself than to him, but she wouldn't have cared that he could hear her. "I don't think I'd even be in Seattle if I hadn't met Mark" he replied with quietly. "I could still be married to Addison living in New York because she wouldn't have cheated on me with him. I wonder how different our lives would actually be if it wasn't for Mark..."

Callie smiled softly as she finished her glass of wine and poured another, pondering over what Derek had just said. How different _would_ their lives be if it wasn't for Mark Sloane, cosmetic, ENT surgeon and a renowned womaniser? Getting lost in their own thoughts, Derek and Callie quickly finished off the alcohol they had bought to the table, so Joe bought more over, telling them it was on the house in memory of Mark.

Drinking slowly, Callie thought about how she probably wouldn't know she attracted to women, so wouldn't be married to Arizona and she definitely wouldn't have her beautiful daughter, seeing as Mark was the father. But where would she be? Portland? Maybe, because she would never have dated Arizona who was the one person who refused to let her leave. Callie couldn't imagine her life without her beautiful wife; but did she have Mark to thank for it all? She didn't know. She never would know: how could she? How can someone determine how their life would turn out if they hadn't met one person? Nobody could do that. For Sofia though, she definitely had Mark Sloane to thank.

Opposite Callie, Derek was having a similar internal conversation with himself while he drank his whiskey. For all he knew, his life could be completely, entirely different on the other side of the country married to the woman who cheated on him with Mark. It had been a long time since Derek Sheppard thought of his ex-wife Addison Montgomery, but scenarios like this led to memories like that. He guessed he really should phone Addison; even though he hated her guts for what he did to her, she deserved to know that their friend had died. Looking over the table towards Callie, he swallowed visibly and quietly whispered his ex-wife's name before standing and excusing himself from the table to go outside and make what he knew would be a very difficult conversation to have; especially over the phone.

On the third ring, despite the late hour, Addison answered her phone. "Derek? What...What are you doing phoning me so late?" she asked, sounding like she had just woken up.

"Addy..." Derek sighed softly. "I don't know how to tell you. Where are you?"

At his bizarre line of questioning, Addison sat up a little straighter in her bed and looked at the time on her phone: 23:46. "Derek, I'm at home. You woke me up. Now what is going on?"

"It's Mark, Addison... He's gone. He...he died tonight." Derek said softly, fighting the tears that were threatening to fall. It was the first time he had uttered the words that his best friend for over ten years had died.

Upon hearing the words 'Mark' and 'died', Addison burst into tears down the phone – big, heaving sobs that quickly choked Derek as well until they were both sobbing down the phone to each other, neither saying anything. For ten minutes they stayed like that, Derek having wandered over to the wall to sit down. Neither of them said a word: what was there to say? Nothing would bring him back and sorry didn't really change what had happened.

"H...he's dead? How...how?" Addison eventually managed to choke out, not sure if she truly wanted to know the answer or not, but needing to know.

"He...it...there was a plane crash a few months ago. You must have heard about it. Lexie Grey, Meredith's younger sister die...died at the scene, Arizona R...Robbins lost her leg from below the kn...kn...knee, the pilot died, I lost the use of my hand although I have it b...back now, and Christina ran away from it all."

Addison let new sobs rake through her body as she listened quietly to her ex-husband explain the consequences of such a crash. "Christina...What d...do you mean she r...ran away? S...surely she came ba...back with you all" she asked confused in her shock and tiredness.

As horrible as he felt for it, Derek calmed down slightly not talking about Mark and was able to control his voice slightly better. "Christina came back, yeah. B...but then she ran off to Minnesota to do her fellowship. Ex...except for M...Mark and Lexie, she probably fared the worst, Addie. She drove. All the way to Minnesota; she can't get on a plane. She had to be sedated to come back from the crash."

After taking about the plane crash for a little while longer, especially Mark, Derek decided not to be the bearer of bad news and hang up the second they had finished talking about it, but instead asked her how her job was going to lighten the conversation slightly. But eventually, he was aware he had to go back inside to Callie.

"Derek," Addison said quickly before they hung up, "thank you for calling me and letting me know; I know it must have been really hard for you and you know someone else would have let me know. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Tell Callie I say hello and give her a hug from me, please."

Derek nodded his head with a quiet "Sure thing, Addy" before hanging up and heading back inside the bar to the table where he had left Callie. He found her sat hunched over the table resting her head on her forearms on the edge of the table, her wine glass held loosely in her hand, sobs racking through her body. Deciding not to sit opposite her, Derek slid in beside Callie and wrapped his arms around her tightly, letting his tears fall and crying with her. They'd never really gone through anything together, not really. Not anything big. Sure, he'd been shot and she'd been in a car accident and suffered almost fatally, but they were separate. They'd gone through those incidents as a group. Not to say that the whole hospital hadn't lost Mark Sloane because they had: but he was closest to Callie and Derek, nothing would have ever changed that.

Turning slightly in her seat, Callie turned and held Derek just as tightly as he was holding her, together mourning the loss of their best friend. He'd been there for them both from the very start. They'd never forget him. How could they? He was Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital's resident womaniser. Nobody could ever forget him.

**Okay, so this totally didn't go where I thought it was going to go. Oh well. Hope you like it all the same. And big thanks to magicalwolfgirl for being my beta. I might add to this in the future as well possibly, I don't know. Let me know what I should do? **


End file.
